Feeding and unloading device for weighing or checking apparatus for cigarettes



March 9, 1954 FELLMANN 2,671,551

FEEDING AND UNLOADING DEVICE FOR WEIGHING OR CHECKING APPARATUS FOR CIGARETTES Filed Jan. 28, 1948 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 1m) zminr:

Rudolf Falimann.

I March 9, 1954 R LLM NN 2,671,551

FEEDING AND UNILOADING DEVICE FOR WEIGHING OR CHECKING APPARATUS FOR CIGARETTES Filed Jan. 28, 1948 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 5. Inn 1711GT.

Ruomlj Tel Mm. (1mm H AQWMM Patented Mar. 9, 1954 FEEDING AND UNLOADING DEVICE FOR WEIGHIN G R CHECKING APPARATUS F OR CIGARETTES Rudolf Fellmann, Prague-Smichov, Czechoslovakia, assignor to Skoda Works, National Corporation, rizen, Czechoslovakia Application January 28, 1948, Serial No. 4,918

Claims priority, application Czechoslovakia February 21, 1947 1 Claim. 1

My invention relates to weighing or checking apparatus for cigarettes and more particularly to feeding and unloading devices used in combination therewith.

The main object of my invention is to avoid the disadvantages of the known devices of that type which are intricate in construction and not always reliable in operation. My new device may be used to weigh and to check either individual cigarettes coming from a cigarette making machine or groups of such cigarettes.

The said and other objects of my invention will be more fully understood from the following specification when read with the accompanying drawing in which one embodiment is illustrated by way of example.

In the drawing:

Figs. 1 and 2 show in front view and in side view, respectively, partly in section, a conveyor device for cigarettes coming from any conventional cigarette making machine, and a device for lifting individual cigarettes from said conveyor device in timely intervals.

Fig. 3 shows in front view structural members of my new feeding and unloading device cooperating with said lifting device and with a weighing or checking apparatus for cigarettes.

Fi 4 shows a side view thereof including driving means therefor,

Fig. 5 shows in front view the structural members illustrated in Fig. 3 in another position, and cam means to operate said members, and

Fi 6 shows in front view the same structural members in still another operative position.

The same reference numbers indicate the same parts in all figures of the drawing.

The conveyor device illustrated in Figs. 1 and 2 is adapted to cooperate with a conventional cigarette making machine which is not shown in the drawing and comprises a continuously rotating grooved drum or the like I which receives the cigarettes 2 from the cigarette making machine and transfers the same in parallel-axial positions upon a continuously driven conveyor belt 3 supported by a plurality of rollers 4 (only one being shown in the drawing) which rest in bearings 5, 6, mounted in the apparatus frame I. The drum I and the rollers 4 turn anti-clockwise as indicated by the arrows shown in Fig. 2 and they are driven in any convenient known manner.

From the stream of parallel-axial cigarettes moving on and with the conveyor belt 3 one cig arette is seized at intervals and lifted out of the stream by a device of which many are known in the art. In the shown embodiment (Figs. 1 and 2) said device comprises a pair of automatically controlled cooperating grasping jaws l4, I5 which while rotating with the shaft I0 seize a cigarette 2 from the said stream of cigarettes and lift the same above, and release the same into the receiving bed 29 of a cam controlled rocking lever 28. The said shaft III is of square cross section, is rotatably mounted in bearings 8, 9 supported in the frame I, and is continuously rotated by a pulley II driven by a belt I3 from an electric motor not shown in the drawing. The jaws I4, I5 are slidably mounted upon the shaft Ill and are provided at their outer ends with fiat springs l6 and II, respectively, to hold the cigarettes 2 resiliently therebetween. The jaws I4, I5 are actuated that is moved into the seizing position illustrated in full lines in Fig. l and into the releasing position shown therein in dotted lines by an eccentrically suspended pendulous disclike weight 20 which is mounted in a longitudinal slit I8 of the shaft I0 and is swingably held therein by a pivot I9. Said pendulous weight 20 is linked to the jaws I4, I5 by connecting rods 22 and 23, respectively, which rods are jointed with their ends 24, 25 and 26, 21 to said jaws I4, I5 and to the weight 20, respectively.

This weight 20 in the position shown in Fig. 1 in full lines holds the jaws I4, I5 in grasping position to seize one of the cigarettes 2 carried by the belt 3. The jaws I4, I5 revolving with the continuously turning shaft I0 lift the seized cigarette above the receiving bed 29 of the conveying lever 28. During that time the weight 20 while turning with the shaft I I! slides along a guide member 2| and is prevented to swing about its pivot I9; thus the jaws I4, I5 remain in seizing position retaining the cigarette 2 between said springs I6, I'I. After a revolution of the said weight 20 reaches the position shown in dotted lines in Fig. l and is thereafter released by said guide member 2| to swing downward in clockwise direction thereby distancing the jaws I4, I5 from each other and releasing the lifted cigarette into the bed 29 of the rocking lever 28. After an additional turn of 180 the distanced jaws I4, I5 are again returned by the weight 20 into their operative seizing position illustrated in Fig. l.

The said shaft I0 drives through the gears I2 and 32 with the same number of revolutions a shaft 3| which rests in bearings 33, 34 and which carries cam discs 35, 36 (Figs. 4 and 5). Another shaft 39 resting in bearings 31, 38 carries keyed thereupon the rocking conveying lever 28 mentioned above and an operating arm 40 thereof having a guide roller 4I sliding upon the cam disc 35 (Figs. 4 and 5). Still another shaft 44 resting in the bearings 42, 43 is actuated by the arm 48 having a guide roller 43 sliding upon the cam disc 36 and said shaft 44 has keyed thereupon a forked auxiliary lever 45 provided at its swinging end with an outer bed 46 and an inner bed 41 each bed being adapted to receive a cigarette. The said bearings 33, 34, 31, 38, 42, and 43 are all mounted in the machine frame I referred to above. The rocking lever 28 and the auxiliary .lever 2'5 are actuated by their respective .cams 35, 31 in timely overlapping relation with each other and with the forked scale pan 5! which is attached by a suspension member 52 to one end of "the double armed scale beam 50,the other end'thereof supporting an adjustable counterweight 54. The said scale beam 55 oscillates about the fulcrum 53 and is provided with .an indicator arm 55 cooperating with a scale 56. The swin movement of the scale beam 50 is limited by stop members 51, 58. position of the scale pan 5| is an inclined stationary flap or similar member 59 which is situated to avoid the arms of the forkedamriliary swing lever as (Figs. 3and4).

In the shown embodiment the length of the scale beam arm supporting the scale pan -5! is equal to the length of the auxiliary lever 35 between its fulcrum 44 and the outer bed =46. Likewise the distance between the scale beam fulcrum 53 and the fulcrum 58-01 the auxiliary lever $5 is equalto thelength of the suspension member 52 for the scale-pan 5i. In -view-o'fthis parallelogrammatic arrangement the pathf the bed at and the path of the scale pan rl will coincide.

My new device will operate as follows:

The cigarettes lcoming from a cigarette making machine "are transported in parallel positions transversely to their axis upona conveyor belt supported :bya plurality of rolls 4. From this stream of cigarettes one cigarette is seized at intervals by "the automatically controlled grasping jaws 14, J15, liftedzas shown :inFigs. v1 and 2 abovea receiving bedZl-l in a camqcontrolled conveying lever 28 and thereafter released thereupon. While .oneci-garette is weighed upon the forked scale pan 5! which suspends zfrom :the scale beams'fi, :the {said conveying lever 28 swings towards the a-weighing device .and .at the same timezthe cam controlled auxiliary '1BVGY'A5rSWlDgS upwards from its lower position shown in -Fig. 3. The auxiliary lever 45 which is also forked meshesinva :comb-like manner with the forked scale pan 5| :and with the forked end of the conveying lever 28 :as recognizable from .-Fig. 4. At :the swinging end of the auxiliary ;-lever 45 is an outerbed 4.6 arranged to receive andto support'a cigarette. The middle'portion of the path of theup and down swinging-bed:-46 coincides'with the limited'up'and downmovementof the scale 5! sozthat the said-auxiliary ;lever 45 'while moving upwards lifts the cigarette being weighed upon thescale pan .5! -.as shown in Fig. 6. Meanwhile the conveying lever .28 swung near to the weighingdeviceand the-steering face 3!! on said lever 28 pushes the cigarette resting in the-outer bed 4'5 into a parallelinner bed -41, thus .freeing the said outer bedillfi to receive and to.lift the ci arette transported .by the conveying'lever 28 towards the weighingclevice '(Fi-g. v5). 'Thereafter the cam controlled levers '28 and-:45 start; their return-movement into thepositions shown in Fig. :3. The-rocking lever 28 after itsxreturir to 'the starting positionvshown in Figures 1, 2land '3 receives another cigarette lifted from the conveyor belt. Whilethe auxiliary lever A5 returns from the positionzshown in Fig. 5 into the position shown inFigPB the cigarette now resting in the-outer bed 46 transferred to the "scale apan 5| "to be weighed,

Below the lowermost whereas the previously weighed cigarette now resting in the inner bed 41 is transported downwards towards an inclined flap 59 or similar member to be lifted thereby from the inner bed "4'? and'freed'for further transportation.

While in the described and shown embodiment of my invention cigarettes are individually withdrawn from a stream of cigarettes and weighed'thereafter, it will be well understood that without departing from my invention two or more cigarettes-maybe simultaneously withdrawn as a group from the stream of cigarettes and thereafter weighed upon a weighing device.

In such case it is only necessary to adapt the seizing device, the conveying lever 28, the beds 46 and 41 upon the auxiliary lever 45 and the scale panel to'hold more thanone cigarette at a time.

Aithough only one embodiment of my invention has been shown and described 'by way of illustration, it will be understood-that my inventionmay be constructed in-various other embodiments which will come within the scope of the appended claim.

What I claim my invention is:

In combination with a weighing or checking apparatus for cigarettes including a balance stops limiting the swing-movement thereof, and a forked scale pan attached thereto and adapted to receive acigarette: a feeding and unloaddev 2 comprising means to automatically lift at intervals a cigarette from a stream of parallel axial cigarettes and to release the lifted cigarette, a cam controlled-rocking conveying lever adapted to .receive at its swinging end said released cigarette, anauxiliary levercoopeng its up -anddown swinging end in overlapping relation withthe swinging end of said conveying lever and with said scalepan, an outer bed and an inner bed uponthe swingingendof saidauXiiia-ry lever, each bedadapted :to support a cigarette in a .positionparallel to that of the scale pan supported cigarette, the pathof .the upanddown swinging outerbed coinciding inits middle portion withthe limitedpathpi thescztle pan between its loaded lower position and its unloaded upper position'so that each cigarette aiterheing weighed is lifted from thelscale pan by the upswinging-outer bed,;a :camming face on :the swinging end of the conveying lever ,topush. the lifted weighed cigaretteffromsaid outer bedinto. said inner bedthus ifreeingjthe ,outerbed to lift the next cigarette from the conveying lever and permitting the outer bed .to transfer said next cigarette upon the scale pan on the following down-Ward movement of theauxiliary lever, means to remove the weighed cigarette iromthe inner bedat the endof the downward movement of the auxiliary lever, and (driving means to swin the conveyingleverand-the auxiliary lever in timely relation.

RUDOLF FELLMANN.

References Citedin the file of this patent UNITEDSTATES PATENTS Number Name Date 1,539,253 :Graupner :May:-26, 1925 1,921,317 Molins et al Aug.; 8,.11.9;33 2,121,191 Tahir .June 21,;1-9'38 2,2555% Ruau Sept. 23, 1941 2,329,975 Best Sept. 21, 1943 FOREIGN I PATENTS Number Country Date 292,699 'GreatBritain June 26, 1928 628,731 Germany -Apr.-1,1 936 

